Food Fight: Chicken Feet

In addition to my illustrious MMA writing career, I double up as a foodie. When Brandt recommended I start a column on nutrition, I thought it’d be an excellent way to merge these two seemingly divergent interests, and perhaps share some information on something I am quite passionate about. I mean, I do my own canning and pickling; I make teas out of wildcrafted herbs. I make my own whey and kraut, my own salad dressing and chocolate. I spend a lot of time sourcing my food, making sure my veggies are local and organic, my beef is grassfed, my eggs are rich in omega 3s and my pork and poultry is pasture-raised.

I also eat chicken feet.

Let me explain. Chicken feet make the best chicken stock ever, since they are rich in tendons and cartilage. Not only are they full of collagen, magnesium, phosphorus, silicon, sulphur and trace minerals, they also have a ton of glucosamine chondroitin–the same substance in those pills you’ve been paying a ton of money for to help with joint pain.

Where do you find chicken feet? I got mine at the farmer’s market, though I’ve seen them at ethnic markets as well. Luckily, my local farmer already processed the chicken for me, though you can of course look at the resources listed below to learn how to do this yourself.

Can’t find feet? Don’t fret. If you source your chicken–using farm-raised, free-rangechickens–you’ll produce a broth that gels even without feet. When it cools, it congeals–you’ll see a layer of gelatin on top of it. That is exactly what you want. In addition to being very nutrient-dense, it is amazingly delicious.

Cooking instructions? All I did was put my whole chicken in a pot, cover it with filtered water, added vinegar and feet and let it boil all day, adding water as needed. You can also use a crockpot if it’s big enough (or your chicken is small enough), cooking on the low setting for up to 24 hours.

After cooking, I separate the meat from the broth from the bones. The bones can be thrown out or fed to your dog. I use the shredded chicken in soups, salads, curries, enchiladas and other dishes. The broth can be used as a base in many soup recipes–adding coconut milk, lemon juice, sea salt and chile flakes adds a whole new flavor, or add vegetables and some of the meat back in.

You can also make a broth out of chicken feet without the whole chicken–this makes your broth almost pure gel when cooled, and so you can use spoonfuls of it in your meals. If you need to eat in a hurry during the week, better to spend one weekend day cooking your chicken (or letting the crockpot do the work) so you have many days worth of broth and meat ready to go.

Plus, then you can scare the neighbors.

References:

http://nourishedkitchen.com/chicken-feet-stock/

http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/how_to_make_stock_from_chicken_feet/

http://www.tigersandstrawberries.com/2005/02/26/eating-feet/

http://justtherightsize.blogspot.com/2008/02/why-did-chicken-cross-road.html

http://www.westonaprice.org/Broth-is-Beautiful.html

http://www.hertzmann.com/articles/2004/matrix/recipes/glace.php